Mayor Bill de Blasio is the most investigated Gotham mayor in modern times and any day now, New Yorkers should learn whether he will face criminal charges. If he is charged, top-tier Democrats are almost certain to challenge him in this year’s election.

But if de Blasio skates free, those timid Dems, especially Comptroller Scott Stringer and Public Advocate Letitia James, are likely to duck the race and hold on to their safe seats for four more years. In which case, de Blasio would be a heavy favorite to win a second term.

That distasteful scenario reveals how bankrupt city politics is, with a mayoral indictment the only red line. It’s based on the cynical belief that voters don’t really care about ethics and that, among Dems, anything short of alleged criminal wrongdoing is good enough for New York.

Thankfully, at least one candidate doesn’t agree, and has the guts to say so. Paul Massey, a Republican running with the backing of the Independence Party, believes the scandals swirling around City Hall are important enough to be part of a winning argument. He is making corruption a key plank in his case against de Blasio, and plans to run whether or not the mayor is indicted.

Massey was on the steps of City Hall yesterday, raising corruption for the second time in two weeks. He calls de Blasio a “part-time mayor” and says he is so busy fighting to stay out of jail that he is neglecting his day job, which explains why he can’t get a handle on homelessness, child abuse and other issues.

“He’s working half-days, campaigning and spending time with his criminal defense lawyers,” Massey told me. “We see poor kids getting killed, but no one should be surprised and it will continue until the end of year. He’s corrupt and incompetent.”

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Last week, Massey wrote to the state and federal prosecutors investigating the mayor to urge them to also look at de Blasio’s plan to solicit donors to pay his legal bills. The mayor concedes he has not paid a penny to his lawyers at Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, despite the fact they have been sending bills for months.

“No ordinary person can get legal services with no actual plan to pay for them,” Massey wrote. “This involves millions of dollars in credit extended to Bill de Blasio personally, which is potentially illegal.”

He also noted that the city already is spending $11 million of taxpayer cash to pay for legal representation for mayoral aides caught up in the probes, and has said it may need $6 million more. If cases go to trial, the cost would soar into the stratosphere.

“There is a real burden for taxpayers,” Massey said. “It’s not right and it’s not normal.”

Another suspicious wrinkle, as Massey noted in his letter to prosecutors, is that Kramer Levin has lobbying clients, mostly in real estate, who depend on City Hall actions. That arrangement echoes the very issue that led to the criminal investigations in the first place, that the mayor sold government favors to big donors.

Massey, who built a real estate firm, is a political rookie, and it showed when a reporter asked his position on stop-and-frisk.

He responded, “I ­haven’t established an answer,” which de Blasio later ridiculed.

Fair enough, but it’s no guarantee that de Blasio will get the last laugh. Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. and federal prosecutor Preet Bharara convened grand juries to examine the millions in donations de Blasio and aides solicited from firms and individuals with city business.

Several of those donors got favorable government action near the time of their donations, raising the possibility of illegal pay-to-play schemes. Extortion charges are also possible if donors believed their business would be harmed if they refused to contribute to the mayor’s slush funds.

Recall that Bharara brought extortion charges against both former Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos. They got secret cash and benefits from private companies, and trial testimony showed those firms thought they had to say yes to the schemes to win favors and protect their businesses from punishment. Silver and Skelos were each convicted on all counts.

If de Blasio is not charged, there will be two main consequences in addition to the election. First, he’ll have no trouble raising money to pay his legal bills. He would still have power over donors’ businesses and contracts, and while some may complain at having their arms twisted, most will pay up.

The second impact is that the city should scrap its ethics and campaign finance laws and the state and feds should dismantle their anti-corruption bureaus. After all, if what de Blasio has done is legal, nothing is illegal, so let’s dispense with the hokum that the laws apply to politicians and private citizens equally.

If de Blasio walks, pols are above the law.

Swede and sour times

For a moment, I thought The New York Times might put its anti-Trump agenda aside and report straight news in straight fashion. But once again, politics triumphs over facts.

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A front-page story on its Web site headlined “Violent Clashes in Sweden Highlight Trump’s Remarks” suggested the Times was about to admit the president was essentially right — that Muslim refugees had created a crime wave in Sweden, even though he muddied his message by suggesting there had been a violent attack last Friday night.

The Times story went partway there — but used every word but the right word and never said Muslim or Islam about violent disturbances Monday and Tuesday near Stockholm. Instead, the 70 or so young men throwing rocks, torching cars and battling cops were called “residents” and “refugees” and “migrants.” Their town was described as “economically deprived” and populated by people with “immigrant backgrounds.”

The story is not fake news, but neither is it honest. Concealing the religion of the perps blinds readers to a crucial fact, which is certainly relevant given that the paper had wet its pants in two previous stories mocking Trump’s initial statement.

Is the omission protecting Muslims? Or is the Times twisting itself into knots to avoid admitting Trump was onto something?

PA’s brazen cab grab

The Port Authority, having mismanaged the region’s airports, wants to be rewarded for its dereliction.

The bistate agency aims to skim $4 from every taxi and Uber ride to and from La Guardia, JFK and Newark airports to fund improvements.

It’s an old bureaucrats’ trick: Fritter away tons of money, then demand more, promising you’ll now do what you were supposed to do all along.

Heaven’s gate

The quote of the day comes from a Trump supporter in Virginia named Sandy Hurst. She likes everything he plans to do, including building the border wall and thoroughly vetting immigrants and refugees. Hurst tells the Wall Street Journal: “Even heaven has a wall and a gate. And there is lot of super vetting going on there.”